Emerging markets are no haven from woe

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The Brics are not decoupling from the global economy, they are crumbling, their stock markets tumbling like dominoes as the woe of Wall Street’s bankers infects the world with gloom.

The Pollyannas said that it couldn’t happen, that the world was somehow different, that emerging markets were not just saplings but giant oaks - billions of dynamic new consumers would shrug off the burden of uncreditworthy and lazy Yankees and Europeans.

The truth is out, if you believe markets: the Shanghai stock market plunged 7 per cent yesterday, adding to Monday’s 5 per cent fall. Trading was suspended in Bombay as